Afterparty
by Ali213
Summary: After another random rave, Seth finally finds an opportunity to tell Summer what he's been meaning to say (apologies for rubbish title)


This is my first OC story, it's set after the summer at the end of series 1, and doesn't include any spoilers for after that, it's just out of my own little head!

Disclaimer: Shockingly, I don't own the OC.

Enjoy! (and please review!)

Seth strolled through the various reception rooms of the house, the party was almost over, and he was looking for Ryan so they could go home. He knew it had been his idea to come, but it was more to get Ryan out of the house than any really wish to spend an evening surrounded by drunk polo players and pretty girls who didn't even know he existed. Actually, that wasn't strictly true, dating Summer meant he was vaguely known among her old crowd, and since they'd broken up a few of her old friends had been interested to check him out that evening. He didn't really feel like talking to them though, as it just reminded him of the fact that a) he was single and b) thanks to him leaving her, Summer had reverted back to her old ways, and was now just another rich bitch again. Except of course she wasn't, because to him she never had been, and after the months he'd spent with her, he'd never forget that underneath she was one of the sweetest people he knew, and he wasn't going to let her forget it either.

Recently, after two weeks of pretending he didn't exist, since he shut the door in his face when he arrived back in Newport to see her, Summer seemed to be cooling towards Seth. She wasn't nice to him, or nasty, they certainly never shared any of the catty banter they used to before they dated, but she was civil when they passed at school, as though he was just another fellow student. This almost hurt more than the ignoring, it was as if nothing had ever happened between them, as if she didn't know him at all. She was so good at it Seth sometimes began to wonder if he had dreamt their whole relationship. However, very rarely, he would catch her watching him out of the corner of his eye, she would idly look towards something else, so he was never quite sure if he was right, but once her look was so intense, and almost mournful, that he was sure she had been thinking about him.

Seth only wished that Ryan was still dating Marissa, so that he could maybe have some indication from her friend of how Summer was feeling: whether she was hurting inside, or had simply forgotten all about him. Ryan however had fared no better on his reappearance than Seth, although he had communicated with Marissa a little more than Seth had with Summer, it was usually in angry, tearful arguments, which ended in the slamming of the pool house door.

Seth sighed as he exited what appeared to have been a sitting room; the couch was now turned over, and someone had been sick among the general debris which littered the floor, he hoped that whoever it was who was throwing this party had rich parents who would be able to suffer the clean-up bill. He laughed to himself, he was in Newport, what was he thinking, of course they would be. He had arrived back in the main room, with no sign of Ryan. He was about to go try the garden, when he caught sight of someone passed out on the couch, someone wearing very high strappy wedges, and a very short skirt...

"Summer?" She didn't hear him, or at least, she showed no sign of waking up. He walked over and shook her shoulder gently, but she was totally out off it. It was nothing to do with him, he thought to himself, Drake, her latest hook-up, would probably take her home, if he wasn't passed out too...

He went through the French windows into the garden, now more depressed than ever. Ryan was indeed outside, sitting on a bench with a girl, drinking a beer. Great, Seth thought, it didn't take him long to get over his heartbreak. He changed his mind when he got closer however, Ryan looked just as depressed as he felt, and didn't seem to be very interested in what the blonde next to him was saying.

He got up as Seth approached, "Hey man, did you want to leave?"

"Um, yeah, but only if you're ready."

"Oh, do you have to go?" the blonde piped up, "my parents are away, and I could really do with some comp..."

"I'm sorry," Ryan cut in, "I've got to get up early tomorrow for...soccer practice, uh, seeya." He grabbed Seth's arm and walked quickly back inside, leaving the girl looking disgruntled.

Seth looked sideways at Ryan, true to form he didn't explain his urgent need to leave, but he looked like he hadn't enjoyed the party much either. Ryan stopped suddenly,

"Hey, isn't that Summer?"

"Um, yeah, but I figured Drake would be taking her home." Seth tried and failed to keep the bitterness out of his voice. Ryan looked at him despairingly, "Seth, Drake left like an hour ago to go smoke pot with Holly and a load of assholes down on the beach."

"Oh." Seth looked back at Summer, whatever he felt about her at the moment, he still cared about her, and there was no way he was going to leave her passed out in some random person's house.

"Do you think we should take her back with us?"

"Does she have a bag, she might have a key, we could just take her home."

"Not with her, and it could be anywhere in this house, she may not even have brought one, maybe we should just take her back with us." Maybe then she'd talk to him, and listen to what he had to say, let him say sorry.

"Okay, do whatever you want."

Seth went over to the couch and gently picked her up. His fingers tingled against her bare skin, and he swallowed as her head flopped against his shoulder, and he caught a whiff of her coconut shampoo. Her carried her out to the car, and Ryan opened the back door so he could lay her on the seat.

Seth was silent on the ride back. Ryan glanced across at him, "hey man, you okay?"

"Yeah," he sighed, he looked back at Summer on the back seat, and prayed that she wouldn't hate him when she woke up.

..............................................

Summer rolled over, pulling the covers with her. Her head was throbbing and she was still wearing her jeans skirt from the night before. She groaned and sat up, and suddenly noticed she wasn't in her room, or wherever she had fallen asleep yesterday.

"What the hell..." she muttered, then trailed off, because she'd just realised where she was, and it was somewhere she recognised all too well. Cohen's pool house?

"Oh my god, what did I do?" She slapped a hand to her head, and flopped back onto the bed, praying she hadn't done anything stupid, like sleep with her ex-boyfriend for instance, or his best friend. She had been working for weeks on getting Seth out of her head, ignoring him as much as possible, and she had gotten pretty good and pretending to herself that nothing had ever happened between them. Trust her to screw that all up in one drunken night, it was all Cohen's fault, she was not responsible for her actions around him. She was startled out of her reverie by a knock on the door, then it opened, and Seth came in. He looked about as uncomfortable as she felt, and she just managed to catch herself from feeling sorry for him. He stood by the door, slightly awkwardly, holding a cup off coffee, "um, I thought you might want this," he held it out to her, and she took it smiling very slightly, "and these," he produced a bottle aspirin from his pocket, and she allowed the smile to grow,

"thanks." He gave a bashful shrug and stuck his hands back in his pockets. "Um...we didn't...we didn't do...anything...last night, did we?" Summer asked.

"No! no, um, you just, passed out, and...I thought it would be better if we...took you home." He left out the part about her boyfriend abandoning her to go smoke pot with a load of other girls, but Summer guessed that Drake had been pretty much out off the picture by then, he didn't really seem like the kind of guy to stick around once he could see he wouldn't be getting any that night. She didn't know why she was dating him really, probably because he was so completely the opposite of Seth that he wouldn't remind her of him in any way.

"Right, good, I just wanted to...to check." She knew that fro the sake of her façade: that he no longer meant anything to her, that she should simply put him down with a scathing or sarcastic comment, and then leave without looking back. But somehow she couldn't do it, she didn't have the energy to pretend anymore, and something about being back in his pool house made her feel safe, and content, she didn't want to leave yet.

"Look...while you're here..." Seth knew he had to take the plunge now, he'd never have another chance, "do you wanna talk?"

Summer's head snapped up. She had sort of assumed that they would both forget all about what had happened between them, that there was an unspoken agreement that they had broken up and nothing more would be said about it. After all, he'd come back from Tahiti to see her and she'd slammed the door in his face, she didn't really expect him to ever want to see her again. But then of course, Seth Cohen never really did what you'd expect. She was caught off guard, and could only stammer "O..Okay."

He came and sat on the edge of the bed, and she moved over to him, with her legs crossed underneath the covers, so he was almost facing her.

"Summer, I'm so, so sorry for leaving. Everything seemed to be going wrong in Newport, Ryan had left..."

"_We_ weren't going wrong," Summer was surprised to hear herself speak, she'd sworn she would just listen and not let any of her feelings show by getting emotional, but then that had just slipped out. Seth seemed surprised too, he looked at her, right into her eyes, and she could feel tears already beginning to form.

"I know," he whispered. "And as soon as I left I thought, 'what the hell am I doing, I just wrecked the best thing that ever happened to me,' but I couldn't believe that we would ever last, it was so like a dream, I just assumed that eventually I'd wake up and you'd realise what you'd been doing and dump me for some football player." Summer looked stung by these words, Seth sighed. "I thought I could forget you."

"You really thought that," Summer could hear the choke in her voice, but she didn't stop, the game was over. "That I never really changed, that I would just leave you for some stupid jock!"

"I don't know! I mean, come on Summer, this is all so unbelievable, I got the girl of my dreams, I thought you'd realise you made a mistake!"

"I didn't make a mistake Seth! You know why I went out with you? Aside from all the normal stuff like being funny and cute and whatever, you know why? Because you saw the real me Seth! No matter how hard I tried to hide it you saw what was underneath, what I'd always prayed was there. And you brought it out! But it turns out you never really believed in that me, you were just dreaming, well maybe you're right, maybe I was dreaming to, maybe I am just a superficial bitch who's better off with a two-timing stoner jock like Drake!"

"No Summer! I did believe it was there, I knew, I've always known, but I thought you'd hide it again, that you'd want the life you had before back. Of course you're not a superficial bitch Summer, I know that, _we_ know that!"

Summer was silent. She felt a tear run down her cheek. She let it fall, like she did at night, in bed when she was alone. Seth reached out and brushed it away with his thumb, cupping her cheek in his hand. She closed her eyes, leaning into his touch. Then she opened them again, and looked right into his, "so if you left because there was nothing here for you...why did you come back?" Seth allowed himself to smile slightly, and dropped his hand, he'd come to what he knew he had to say.

"Because I couldn't forget you. I can't live without you...because I love you Summer."

Summer stared at him, tears were running freely down her cheeks now. She didn't know what to do, she knew she had to make a decision, but she didn't know what the options were. Everything she'd thought about Seth in the last few weeks was filling her head, and she just wanted it all to stop. So she stopped listening and followed her instincts, what her heart was telling her. She kissed him.

Seth didn't know what was happening at first. Suddenly her mouth was on his and she was kissing him passionately, every feeling she'd bottled up pouring out. She pushed away the duvet and climbed onto his lap, straddling him, her lips still against his, one hand entwined in his curls the other on his cheek. He wrapped his arms around her and held her pressed against him, and as they broke apart and her hands slipped down to around his neck, he wiped away the tears that were still falling. She nuzzled her head into his shoulder, with her check against his neck and his hands moved slowly up and down her back, stroking her hair.

"I love you," she whispered, so he could only just here. He smiled, and kissed the top of her head, then moved his lips to her ear, "I love you too."


End file.
